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The Energy of the Podkamennaya Tunguska, Siberia, Meteoritic Fall (±1019,609)
Author(s) -
Paz Lincoln
Publication year - 1948
Publication title -
contributions of the meteoritical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 0096-2805
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1948.tb00054.x
Subject(s) - meteorite , meteoroid , atmosphere (unit) , tonne , geology , astrobiology , metric (unit) , physical geography , environmental science , physics , meteorology , geography , archaeology , engineering , operations management
This note points out that, in case F. J. W. Whipple's estimate of the energy expended by the Podkamennaya Tunguska, Siberia, meteorite on the atmosphere is accepted, the mass of this meteorite, assumed to be terrene in composition, must have been of the order of 10 7 metric tons, if its velocity was 10 km./sec., and of the order of 10 5 metric tons, even if its velocity was 100 km./sec. The enormity of these terrene masses, coupled with the failure of exhaustive search to recover any fragment whatever of this fall, is held to support the hypothesis that the Podkamennaya Tunguska meteorite was contraterrene in nature.